How do you really feel about Frank Wren?

[Devil Wears Prado]

So what do you guys think of Frank Wren and what he's really done for this team so far? If you were to give him a letter grade based on his overall performance while his entire stay here in Atlanta as the GM, what would you grade him? Some say they love him, some say they're not so sure.

[KB 34]

His baseball moves are pretty solid. Let's look at some highlights.
-Trading Teix to minimze the Braves losses
-Acquiring Vazquez
-Realizing the Braves needed real pitching last offseason
-Not overpaying for Peavy
-Renteria trade
-Not overpaying Smoltz
-Pulling the plug on the poster child
-Spare change for McLouth
-Not trading Hanson or Heyward for rentals, etc

There have been a few moves that left me scratching my head such as:
-Lowe's contract
-Glavine's contract
-Giving up on Boyer so soon
-Starting this season with an outfield of Schafer, Anderson, and Francoeur

As far as personnel moves go I'll give him a B as the Braves have come up short but have shown signs of life for the future after JS sold them for an ego massage. Unfortunately with Wren there always seems to be a PR trainwreck happening.

-The Braves claiming 1=2 when Smoltz signed with the Red Sox
-The whole Peavy trade situation
-Francoeur bashing the team constantly
-Glavine being cut to save $1 million
-Burnett and Furcal contract negotations

If Wren could cut out the distractions I think he'd have bigger fans and speaking for myself it would be easier to strictly look at the team and not a circus surrounding it. For now I'm satisfied with Wren as the GM. In a couple of years that may change but he's doing fine and I think he's learning from his media nightmares.

[IkeWagner]

Frankly, I like him.

[Dreamscape]

He's a good GM. I'm not really interesting in a long diatribe detailing why. He's just a good GM. I think we will know a lot more about him after this upcoming season. At that point, the organization truly becomes his to mold.

[Freddy_Ballgame]

I think Wren is doing a great job. I also believe JS did a great job, too. I've been a Braves fan so long that I know what a barren joke this club was before "The Streak." JS did a wonderful job trading prospects for proven talent to maintain the streak. He ran out of steam about the same time the team dropped it's budget and the rest of MLB finally realized that those "can't miss" guys the Braves were trading made very little, if any significant noise. His last few big moves were made from a standpoint of weakness, instead of from strength. He has been crucified here for that. Wren has come in behind him and has been working from a little bit better footing, because the fans understand he is very limited from inside the organization. He isn't expected to be a savior or to put the team on top and keep them there forever. Yet. Wren has made some dmned good moves, and some were very difficult but very neccesary. Cutting ties with Glavine and Smoltz pretty much put the wraps on the old era and opened the door to the future. Get a good look at the "old parts" still around.....he faces some tough decisions in the next year or two.

[bravos4evr]

IMO, he has done about as good a job as anyone could have expected out of any GM considering what he had to work with!

The deal to acquire Jurrjens was gold. The decisions he made to not offer Burnett the kind of $$$ he ended up getting was gold. The Lowe deal may look bad now, but I just can't see him being that inconsistent over the life of the entire deal.
The Vazquez deal looks like a steal, especially if we end up flipping him for either mlb ready power bats or the parts to flip in a 3 team deal.
He got rid of Frenchy, and refused to overpay Glavine and Smoltz, just because they were old Braves.
His acquisitions of Laroche and Mclouth are looking really good as well.

The negatives? The PR aspects of the old Braves pitchers was kinda...meh, the fiasco with Furcal made him look kinda bad at first, but when the truth came out about the agent shopping a supposedly done deal around, he ended up actually coming out pretty well as Fookies team looked really unethical.
Lowe could possibly end up being a bad move.... but one I think he HAD to make. IMO, the deal was a psychological one for the rest of the team as much as anything it sent a message that the team was trying to win, and not "rebuilding" . Did he over pay by 3 or 4 mill a year? Probably, but I'm not so sure this team wins 86 games if we had ended up with someone like Brad Penny instead of Lowe. I'm just not sure the rest of the team would have had the confidence to succeed as well as they did!

If I was grading him like a student I'd give him an A-. On a scale of 1-10 I think he has done a solid 8 kinda job maybe even 8.5. If he can re-sign Hudson for a good deal and flip Vazquez for the OFbat we need as well as securing first base and the pen, I may even bump that up to a solid 9 or higher.

In short, I think that there feller has done a dadburn good job!

[BigWorm]

As much as I wanted Dayton Moore here in Atlanta, I have to admit I am very pleased with the results of FW's moves. At the onset of the Smoltz debacle, I killed FW. I can now admit without emotion involved that he did the right thing. Smoltz needed most of the year to find his fastball, and he was just barely serviceable at the end of the year. Smoltz will remain a Braves legend and if FW continues to improve this ballclub, perhaps FW will join him someday.